The Prairie Owl. 191 



discover some day that I had made a mistake) if it evinces 

 a preference for any one thing above another, it is for a fat 

 young Pigeon of about a week old, as I have already stated. 



"It is a lively little bird", continues the Eev. Mr. "Wood, 

 "moving about among the burrows with considerable vivacity, 

 rising on the wing if suddenly disturbed, and making a short 

 undulating aerial journey before it again settles upon the 

 ground. When it has alighted from one of these little flights, 

 it turns round and earnestly regards the pursuer." 



Tes: I can quite believe it, for although I have not yet 

 trusted my bird with the free use of its wings in the garden, 

 or even in the house, the quick way in which it half opens 

 them out, and with a little squeal of fear, or perhaps defiance, 

 jumps into the dark part of its house, returning again almost 

 directly to blink at its visitor, with its great greenish yellow 

 eyes, is very suggestive of the movements described by Mr. 

 Wood in the passage which I have just quoted. I shall let 

 the Owl have a fly out some day, and then we shall see what 

 it will do. 



"The cry of this curious bird", observes the same author, 

 "is unlike that of any other Owl, and bears a very great 

 resemblance to the short, sharp bark of the prairie dog." I 

 may as well at once admit that I have never heard the sound 

 of this intelligent animal's voice, but the noise made by my 

 Owl is neither "sharp" nor "short", but a long series of 

 squealing grunts, intermixed with the well-known sibilant 

 utterances common to other members of the family to which 

 it belongs: of course it may give expression to the "sharp, 

 short bark" by and bye, and if it does, I shall be very glad 

 to hear it and bear due witness to the fact. 



Do the burrows of the prairie dogs, otherwise marmots, 

 intercommunicate, as I believe those of their congeners the 

 rabbits always do? If so, the fact mentioned by Mr. Wood 

 that "marmot. Owl and snake come to be found in the same 

 burrow", is explainable otherwise than by supposing the bird 



